It should come as no surprise by now that most of us here at OSV are huge fans of Vince DiCola. From his work on Rocky IV and The Transformers (the animated film), to some of the recent YouTube postings he’s been involved with, he’s extremely talented and generous with his time. I conducted an interview with him while at Music4Games back in March 2008 after learning that he was involved with an arrangement of popular “Moon Over The Castle” theme from Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. It’s shocking to think that it was nearly 3 years ago that Prologue was released, huh?

In any case, this is one of my favorite interviews that I ever conducted. Vince DiCola is not only very detailed in his responses, but also very genuine and open about his career, the challenges he’s faced in the music business, and his hopes for the future. Interestly, the project he alludes to at the end of the interview is still in the works, and trust me when I tell you that it’s going to blow you all away when it’s finally out there. Hopefully we can provide a preview on that soon, but in the meantime, take a trip back with us to enjoy this Blast from the Past entry with Vince DiCola.

Before you get too excited, this is not an interview with the game’s team of composers. We’ve already featured interviews with Osamu Kubota, S.F.A., and TaQ about the game, but this interview focuses on the actual sound team in Korea who coordinated the project. At the time this interview was conducted, I had listened, reviewedh, and had fallen in love with the Granado Espada soundtrack, and there were whispers that a Volume 2 album was in the works. We all know how that turned out.

With Volume 3 on the horizon, and Granado Espada being our Soundtrack of the Month, I thought it would be a good time to get this interview back online. I admit the team was rather vague on most points, but there are still a few interesting tidbits tucked away within. Oh, and in case you have no idea what “Sword of the New World” is, it’s the name that Granado Espada was released under in the West.

I’ve been intentionally holding on to this one for awhile now. For those who don’t remember, “A Blast From The Past” is an interview series that revisits interviews I conducted while at Music4Games. We’re republishing them here on a somewhat monthly basis as they’re not longer available online. This time I thought it would be fun to celebrate the upcoming release of Metroid: Other M next week by posting the interview I conducted with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption composer Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios sound supervisor Scott Petersen.

In the interview we discuss the series’s transition from 2D into the 3D realm, the audio technology behind the Wii and the Prime series in particular, the interactions between the Japan-based Kenji Yamamoto and the Texas-based Retro Studios, and Nintendo’s lack of official soundtrack releases. This is the interview that I’m probably the most proud of, and I want to thank Nintendo once again for coordinating it and allowing us to republish it along with both Kenji Yamamoto and Scott Petersen for providing such thorough responses.

Re-reading this, I’m curious to hear how Yamamoto’s collaboration with Retro Studios is going for Donkey Kong Country Returns!

Check out the interview after the jump and let us know your thoughts. (more…)

Yes, it’s that time of month! “A Blast From The Past” is a series that rediscovers interviews I conducted while at Music4Games. The interviews are no longer available online, so I thought it would be appropriate to give them new life each month here on OSV.

This time we take a step back in time to GDC 2008 right after composer Masafumi Takada delivered his talk about his work up to that point. He spoke mostly about Killer 7 and No More Heroes, but we were able to sit down with him and discuss some of his other projects at Grasshopper Manufacture as well. I thought it was a good time to bring this one back after our awesome interview with Jun Fukuda and Nobuhiko Sagara back in May. I also have to thank Tommy Ciulla for contributing the majority of the questions to this interview, as I wasn’t really familiar with Takada’s past works at that point.

It’s that time of month again, and we’re here with another Blast from the Past. For those who haven’t been keeping up, this is a series of interviews from my time at Music4Games which are no longer available online. I couldn’t just stand by and let this happen! So here they are once again for your reading pleasure.

This month we’re reliving a chat with rock ‘n’ roll maestro MASA, who you may know from his long-time contributions to KOEI’s Dynasty Warriors series (Shin Sangokumusou
in Japan) as well as an appearance on the Wild ARMs Music the Best -rocking heart- album. At the time this interview was conducted, the release of Dynasty Warriors 6 was on the horizon, and we were wondering how his amazing brand of American-style rock had made its way into the franchise. He provided some excellent responses, and even though not many people know his name, I always thought this was one of the best Japanese composer interviews that Music4Games published. I also want to say thanks to J.P. Arevallo for contributing questions to this interview, as I wasn’t overly familiar with the games.

We’re back with another blast from the past, an interview series that revisits classic interviews I conducted while writing for Music4Games. Thus far we’ve featured Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya of NiGHTS as well as Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo of Super Mario Galaxy. This time we’re going to take a look at what Hitoshi Sakimoto had to say about Basiscape’s involvement with Opoona shortly before the game’s North American release date.

Not only do we discuss Sakimoto’s inspiration for the title, but also the contributions of the other members of the Basiscape team. At the time Opoona was released in the United States, Basiscape was a relatively new company, so the details of the studio and its employees also come up. It’s interesting to hear just how emotionally involved Sakimoto and the other Opoona staff members were, and I think it’s about time this amazing soundtrack made its way to the fans.

We’re back with another “Blast to the Past” interview where we’re spotlighting classic interviews that I conducted while writing for Music4Games. Since the website is no longer online, I thought it would be a shame to let these interviews slide into the void, so we’ve decided to give them new life here on OSV.

With Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the horizon, we thought it’d be appropriate to take a trip back to the release date of the original Super Mario Galaxy to see what Nintendo’s Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota had to say about the game’s music. I hope we can get a repeat of this kind of interview for Super Mario Galaxy 2, but in the meantime, read what the two have to say about their inspirations, recording with a live orchestra, and about the soundtrack release that they skirted around and then went on to announce a full two weeks later (yes, I’m still bitter).

@OSVgamemusic Feed

Last night I received a signed copy of the Battletech soundtrack from composer @JonEverist. It is an absolutely stunning release by @blackscreenrec! If you missed my review for the OST you can read it here @OSVgamemusic https://t.co/qSJyXOuFyo